Clashes outside US embassy in Cairo leave 200 injured

Cairo, Sep 14 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Some 200 people were injured in clashes outside the US embassy located in the Egyptian capital, said an official related to ambulance service Thursday.

“Eight people were hospitalised and the others were given first aid at the scene,” Ahmad Al-Ansari, deputy head of Cairo’s ambulance service, further told reporters.

Among the total injured were 24 security personnel, including six officers and 18 soldiers, Xinhua reported.

Riot police fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who were throwing stones and “Molotov cocktails” also known as a petrol bomb.

Violence swept through Muslim communities around the world following the posting of a short film dubbed “Innocence of Muslims” on YouTube Tuesday. The movie has been denounced as offensive to Prophet Mohammed and immoral.

Protests in Cairo started Tuesday, when crowds of local residents breached the walls of the US embassy and tore down the American flag. Angry demonstrators were later pushed out beyond the compound’s perimetre, but they continue to block access to the building.

The standoff is likely to continue into the weekend. The powerful Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood called on Egyptians to gather for a nationwide protest action on Friday following evening prayers.

The film has been actively promoted by a Florida pastor Terry Jones who gained notoriety for threatening to burn and then burning a copy of the Koran, which set off riots in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, the New York Times reported.

The most serious fallout from the controversy over the film so far occurred in Libya, where US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed Tuesday in an attack on the US consulate building.